Month: May 2023

Little, Ireland’s outstanding left-arm seamer, has been a mainstay of Gujarat Titans’ table-topping outfit in the ongoing IPL, claiming six wickets in the tournament to date including a Player-of-the-Match-winning haul of 2 for 25 against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens last week. But, with Ireland needing a clean-sweep of their three-match series to have any chance of displacing South Africa in eighth place in the World Cup Super League…

Ishan Kishan has replaced the injured KL Rahul in India’s squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia at The Oval in June. Rahul, the captain of Lucknow Super Giants, had been sidelined from the rest of the IPL and the WTC final with a thigh injury. A decision on Jaydev Unadkat, who had hurt his left shoulder while training in the IPL, for the WTC final will…

Big picture: Beware of MI’s explosive middle order When Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore first met in the opening week of IPL 2023 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis had a 148-run opening stand as RCB hunted down 172 with considerable ease. While du Plessis and Kohli continue to churn out runs for their side, the lack of sizeable contributions from outside the top three…

Ravi Shastri believes Rohit Sharma‘s challenges as captain of Mumbai Indians “have doubled” in the past two years, leading to poor returns as a team. “The resources that you had two or three years ago isn’t quite the same. The challenges as a captain might have doubled for him. The work as a captain would have doubled as opposed to two years ago when everything was nice, set – go…

Kurtis Patterson will not be New South Wales Sheffield Shield captain next season with incoming coach Greg Shipperd hoping a return to the ranks will help revive his batting. Overall he averaged 29.78 last season with one century and scored just two hundreds during his time as captain. Related Greg Shipperd handed task of lifting New South Wales off the bottom Sams opts for T20 route, Green earns NSW contract…

A last-ball six to overhaul a target of 215 and keep Sunrisers Hyderabad’s play-off hopes alive could be “the turning point” in Abdul Samad‘s young career, according to his ex-coach Tom Moody. Samad is only 21 but is already in his fourth IPL season, and has found himself in and out of the Sunrisers team this year. By his own admission, he “got lucky” when Sandeep Sharma’s overstep on what…

Allrounder Daniel Sams has opted not to take a state contract with New South Wales to explore further opportunities in the T20 franchise world. Sams, who plays for Sydney Thunder in the BBL, has had 10 T20Is for Australia, the most against England shortly before last year’s World Cup, and is currently with Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL where he has yet to make an appearance. He will join…

Glamorgan 245 (Labuschagne 65, Edwards 3-54) and 352 for 4 dec (Labuschagne 170*, Northeast 66) drew with Yorkshire 106 (Neser 7-32) and 412 for 9 (Lyth 174, Thompson 55*, van der Gugten 4-72) Glamorgan wore their disappointment proudly. Yorkshire’s relief trailed them like a soon-to-be discarded bow tie. Even as the end of this match came, Yorkshire clinging on nine down, Glamorgan clawing at that final wicket, here were two…

Derbyshire 350 for 7 dec (du Plooy 94, Madsen 67, Haider 54, Mulder 5-67) and 0 for 0, drew with Leicestershire 122 (Brookes 6-20) and 281 (Hill 63, Handscomb 62, Patel 58) Chris Wright rescued Leicestershire and denied Derbyshire a first victory of the season before the LV=Insurance County Championship match at Derby ended in farce. When Leicestershire were bowled out for 281, a lead of 53, there were only…

Nottinghamshire 249 (Hameed 97, Williams 3-31) and 138 for 9 (Clarke 42) drew with Lancashire 214 (Bohannan 68, Bailey 48*, Hutton 5-66) and 329 for 8 dec (Bohannon 92, Balderson 91, James 3-45) Brett Hutton, sticking to his defensive duties like black treacle, put in a redoubtable defensive shift as Nottinghamshire narrowly survived a Lancashire victory push on the final day at Trent Bridge. Lancashire left themselves two full sessions…